Michael Kopelman is an internationally recognised authority on memory disorders. For over 30 years, his seminal neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric work on the subject has contributed to the development of cognitive neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry in Britain and beyond.

Professor Kopelman’s first degree was in Psychology before he completed his medical degree at the University of London in 1978 and received his PhD from the IoP ten years later. In 1998, he became a Professor of Neuropsychiatry at Guy’s King’s & St Thomas’s School of Medicine, now part of IoP and King’s College London. He has authored around 200 scientific articles and four seminal books on memory, including The Handbook of Memory Disorders, a major reference volume.

He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. He is the President of the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and immediate past-President of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences. He has also served as President of the British Neuropsychological Society, 2004-6, and was a founder member of the Memory Disorders Research Society.

Professor Kopelman said: “I have always tried to combine neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology. When I arrived at the IoP/Maudsley in 1980, it was dominated by Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neurology. It provided a University-style atmosphere for clinical trainees and a democratic framework. I felt very much that it was the place for me.”

The citation mentioned that Professor Kopelman is a sought-after speaker in international conferences “not only for his tireless research efforts and his persistently high academic standards but also for his unique, understated charisma and his irresistible humour.”

Professor Kopelman is the lead clinician at the Neuropsychiatry and Memory Disorders Clinic run within the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. This memory clinic is a unique multidisciplinary service within British psychiatry, seeing a combination of cognitive, neurological and psychiatric conditions, and receiving national and some international referrals.

The citation referred to Professor Kopelman’s rare combination of neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological skills, and to his human rights medico-legal work on behalf of detainees and Guantanamo returnees.

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